Side effects of realgar, clinical application of realgar

Speaking of the Chinese medicinal material realgar, people often use it in daily life. However, due to its certain toxicity, people are also very concerned about the side effects of realgar. The following article will introduce it to you.

Side effects of realgar:

The main component of realgar is arsenic sulfide, which causes arsenic poisoning, damages nerves and blood vessels, and can cause fatty degeneration and necrosis of solid organs such as the liver, kidneys, spleen and myocardium, and cause cancer.

【Nature and flavor and meridians】Pungent, warm; toxic. It enters the liver and large intestine meridians. "Compendium of Materia Medica": neutral, cold, poisonous.

【Functions and indications】Detoxification and insecticidal, drying dampness and removing phlegm, and preventing malaria. Used for carbuncles, furuncles, snake and insect bites, abdominal pain caused by worm accumulation, epilepsy, and malaria.

Clinical application of realgar:

①Treatment of chronic bronchitis and bronchial asthma

Take 500 grams of realgar and mix it with white paste to make 1000 pills. Adults take 1 pill each time, children aged 10-15 years old take 1/2 pill each time, children aged 5-9 years old take 1/3 pill each time, children aged 2-4 years old take 1/4 pill each time, 3 times a day with warm water. 39 cases of chronic tracheitis (including 19 cases of asthmatic bronchitis) and 11 cases of bronchial asthma were treated, with results as follows: 16 cases were cured (symptoms disappeared and did not recur), 14 cases were significantly improved (symptoms disappeared, but mild symptoms still existed when suffering from a cold or overwork), 9 cases had their symptoms alleviated, 6 cases were ineffective (all had concurrent emphysema and bronchiectasis), and 6 patients had their treatment discontinued due to lack of obvious results.

②Treatment of tropical eosinophilia

Realgar contains arsenic trisulfide, which was used to treat one case of this disease and achieved significant results. Dosage: 4 fen each time, twice a day. Four days after taking the medicine, the shortness of breath and cough were relieved, lung rales disappeared, the white blood cell count in the blood test dropped from 18,300/cubic millimeter to 8,400/cubic millimeter, and the eosinophil count dropped from 63% to 24%. The chest X-ray showed obvious absorption compared with that before treatment, and the patient was discharged from the hospital after the subjective symptoms disappeared.

③Treatment of herpes zoster

Take 50 grams of realgar powder and add 100 ml of 75% alcohol and mix. Apply twice a day. If the pain is severe, add 20 ml of 2% procaine to the realgar tincture. 125 cases were treated and all were effective. The average treatment course was 5.8 days. No side effects or sequelae. Another method is to apply 5 grams of realgar, 0.5 grams of borneol, and 100 milliliters of alcohol to the affected area 4 to 6 times a day. 10 cases were treated. Generally, the pain was relieved after 1 to 2 applications, the blisters shrank, the redness and swelling gradually subsided, and the skin peeled off and healed on its own.

④Treatment of pterygium

Take 3 fen of realgar and 1 qian of raw alum; grind them into fine powder, put them into a colored bottle, and keep it in a cool place for later use. The patient was placed in supine position, and routine ophthalmic anesthesia and disinfection were performed first. Use an eyelid speculum to open the eyelid, ask the patient to squint at the healthy side to fully expose the pterygium, dip a small sterilized cotton swab in a small amount of medicine powder, apply it to the surface of the pterygium, wait for 1 to 2 minutes (too long will be ineffective), use a small toothed tweezers to pick up the head of the pterygium, and tear it against the extension direction of the pterygium until it is torn to the semilunar fold, use sterile small scissors to cut it from the root of the pterygium, and then apply a small amount of medicine powder on the root, wait for the bleeding to stop, lift out the remaining pterygium, and remove the excess medicine powder, apply eye ointment, and bandage it. Remove the dressing the next day, and apply eye drops for a few days to heal.